The Mini Fridge That Runs Away From You

If you're of a certain age, you probably remember the classic prank phone call: "Is your refrigerator running?" The inevitable "Yes" response was then followed by "Well, you'd better go catch it!" For Dorian Todd, this was more than just a cheesy joke — it became the inspiration for his latest project. He designed and built a mini fridge that drives around and literally runs away from you. Better yet, it can also chase you down and serve you a cold drink when you're feeling less athletic.

The robot rides on a tank-style drivetrain powered by a pair of Repeat Robotics Ultra Mk2 brushless gear motors, the same motors originally designed for 12-pound combat robots. Todd initially considered giving the fridge six walking legs, but soon realized that a hexapod stomping across the floor wouldn’t mix well with carbonated drinks. A tracked platform made much more sense, offering stability while still providing excellent mobility.

Getting the fridge onto that chassis took a lot more engineering than simply bolting the two together. Todd 3D-scanned both the metal base plate and the irregular underside of the refrigerator, then imported the scans into Fusion 360 to design a custom ABS mounting core that perfectly joined the two pieces.

The robot is controlled by an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super running Ubuntu and ROS 2 Jazzy alongside an ESP32 microcontroller that acts as the robot's "spinal cord." The Jetson handles computer vision and navigation while the ESP32 translates those commands into motor and servo signals. Communication between the two is simple, using a four-byte serial packet carrying synchronized drive commands and the door position.

The fridge uses a Manifold Tech Odin 1 spatial memory module containing depth sensors, an RGB camera, an IMU, and onboard SLAM processing. An optimized YOLO model accelerated with TensorRT identifies people in real time, and the ROS 2 Nav2 stack builds a live obstacle map for navigation. Depending on the selected mode, custom software continuously generates navigation targets either about a meter in front of a person to follow them or in the opposite direction to make the fridge flee.

Todd replaced the fridge's factory door latch with magnets and connected a custom linkage to a hefty 25 kg-cm servo motor, allowing the robot to swing the door open on command. To make the appliance fully portable, he also rewired the refrigerator's cooling system to operate from a 12-volt power supply rather than household mains.

This is the sort of project you really need to see in action to fully appreciate. Be sure to give the video below a watch.